I have a simple question regarding giving an answer. It happened to me a few times that someone edits my posts, and simply deletes the "Hope that helps" at the end of it. Or removes "Cheers" and any other greetings.

Is this normal, and where is it said that I should not be polite to people? I couldn't find any information about that on the FAQ.

Not everything on this world is obvious. If I don't say "you are beautiful", it's not obvious I mean it, right? :)
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 12:32

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Yes but that doesn't mean nothing is obvious. This isn't social interaction where nobody ever means anything they say, this is Q&A, where a question is a question and an answer is an answer.
– BoltClock♦Jun 3 '14 at 12:33

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You've missed the point. You are demonstrating by example. If you found a way to demonstrate that you found me beautiful (use your imagination), that would be obvious without your having to say it.
– Cody Gray♦Jun 3 '14 at 12:34

So, why someone decides what is obvious and what's not? Sounds weird to me. And I cannot understand how those discussions decide those kind of messages should be deleted, I see tons of people disagree this attitude.. Edit: hah Cody, I would definitely find a way to tell you you're beautiful online, without sending a text message.. Maybe attach picture with flowers? :)
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 12:35

Thank you, Bart, I wouldn't live without that edit :) I cannot even imagine how people keep doing this.. Is it for some kind of rep gaining or you are just making the world a better place? Sometimes I'm just getting sick of all that.. instead of helping each other.
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 13:23

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This is a programming site. Do not attempt to be personal, polite, cheerful, emotional or otherwise human. Instead of "hi" you should type 0x68 0x69 at the beginning of the post. hello, world is also acceptable.
– LundinJun 3 '14 at 14:05

I eagerly remove any "Hope that helps" sign-offs. Not only do they contribute absolutely nothing to the answer (if you didn't want to help why would you be answering at all?) but it has become a token throw-away line to defend half-arsed answers by people who have no clue what they're talking about. It's basically just saying "oh hey make sure you take notice how nice and helpful I am" yawn.
– nathanchereOct 7 '14 at 7:40

I have the following piece of code which results in the error [...]. Solve it for me.

won't take the author of the question very far. On the other hand:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have the following piece of code which results in the error [...].

I have tried [...] and [...], but it was unsuccessful.

May you, please, take a few minutes to review my code and to give me a hint about things which may lead to this error?

I thank you all in advance and apologize if the question is not clear enough or was posted on the wrong site.

adds just too much visual clutter to the question, without being constructive. Keeping just the constructive part while remaining polite, the question becomes:

The following piece of code results in the error [...]. I tried [...] and [...], but the error is still here. What could be the cause of this error?

Also note that it's not because somebody puts "Hi" and "thanks" that his question or answer is polite. Example:

Hello everyone,

I have the following assignment to do for tomorrow: [...]

Please would you be kind to do it for me ASAP, because I run out of time? A complete piece of code that I can simply copy and paste would be great, and I would be very thankful if you can include complete explanation of every line of code you write, because I'm a beginner.

Thank you.

Personally, I would vote to close such question, and downvote it.

As for "Hope that helps", personally, I wouldn't even consider this as a form of politeness. You've provided an answer to a question: you certainly hope this will help, otherwise your answer will be downvoted and never accepted by the author (or maybe even flagged to be removed).

Similarly, putting your name at the end of the question or answer is redundant: each post is followed by a signature containing, among others, your name.

I truly get the point, but I don't understand how this became a factory in which some kind of robots do answer the questions. When you pick up the phone and call the support, they say hi, don't they? It won't help you anyway, but they say 'thank you, have a good day', despite the fact that you know they are polite (really?! how can you know someone is being polite?)
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 12:31

@Anna Good demonstration of relaxed / different standards for comments.
– DeduplicatorJun 3 '14 at 12:39

I think we should flag Anna's comment - too much waste, took me 250ms longer to read :| But MainMa - thanks for the long explanation and samples of "proper" conversation. I still don't understand why "Hi" or "Cheers" would make your day worse, or will waste your time..
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 12:45

Oh and one more for Cody - you seem like a guy that never called support, nor emailed one. Or maybe you've never talked with someone for help? It seems you pretty much don't like to waste your time with chat-chat :)
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 12:47

There is nothing wrong with being polite. A thank you at the end of the post is perfectly fine, in my opinion. Various greetings on the other hand, are just pointless clutter, because this is an internet forum where you direct a question to complete strangers - you aren't writing a personal letter to your dear beloved aunt.
– LundinJun 3 '14 at 13:58

Well Lundin, unfortunately, 'Thank you' is not allowed here. You're doomed to be edited all the time by people, that just hate saying/reading 'Thank you'..
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 15:30

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@AndreyPopov "doomed" ? There are worse things in life than having your question edited. Like not getting an answer. We have a "style" or "voice" for each site, and SO especially prefers an impersonal style that is all about the code and the error message, not how much the answer means to you or how you feel about getting this error. The community edits questions and answers into this style and you disliking that will not change the social norm.
– Kate GregoryJun 3 '14 at 15:47

Being polite means adhering to certain social rules, practicing certain habits that are considered appropriate in the given community. For example, in certain cultures you should say "Hello" when you meet someone. If you do not, you are considered impolite. In other cultures, or even certain subcultures, or smaller communities, this might not be necessary, or even frowned upon, or you are expected to say something else.

Your problem seems to stem from you thinking there is one global "politeness".

If you want to be polite, respect the rules of the community you are communicating in.

In other words, when in Rome, do as Romans do.

If you look at your problem from this point of view, you are actually being impolite here. You are trying to force YOUR view of politeness on the community.

I actually am, indeed, just on purpose. Nobody likes it. The problem is that I haven't seen any rule so far, just some topics here and there with tons of negative feelings about that attitude. Who decides it, Jeff or what? And my main problem is just this - why we have to deal with the culture of specific group of people that decided having a regular two-to-ten characters simple words is wrong? In which culture this is wrong?!
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 15:10

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@AndreyPopov Don't you have something more important to worry about? :) Did you ever think why that "Hello" or "Cheers" are so important to you? Community agreement is that we do not need these here, it is just noise. In every community, there are always people who are whining about meaningless stuff and how they do not like the "rules", so that does not tell anything. This community is quite tolerant though, noone will punish you for sticking to saying "Hello" if this is what makes you happy. Some people will edit these out, then it is up to your intelligence what you do and think about that.
– kapaJun 3 '14 at 15:26

I don't understand how this is an 'agreement', as I haven't seen such :) I just saw Jeff posting "we'll skip those in questions/answers". I've also seen negative comments about that strategy with 80 votes. Again, I don't understand, where on this world a simple "Hi" is a bad thing?
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 15:28

@Andrey Then keep worrying about it, I cannot help you :).
– kapaJun 3 '14 at 15:32

Well you just joined this beautiful unimportant conversation with no real answer to my question and a "cannot help you" ending. Thank you.
– Andrey PopovJun 3 '14 at 15:34

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@AndreyPopov I answered your question. But I'm not going to argue. You either understand it, or keep being upset about something you cannot change :).
– kapaJun 3 '14 at 15:51